Dr Penelope Smith
Senior Lecturer
School of Plant Biology
The University of Western Australia
Personal Website Address:
Email: pmsmith@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
The Big Question
- Integration of phloem mobile signals with the nutrition of developing grain in lupins.
- How is dual targeting of proteins to plastids and mitochondria achieved?
- What is the significance of purine biosynthesis occurring in two locations in some legumes and does this happen in other plants?
The Short-term goals
- Catalogue the miRNA and siRNAs in lupin phloem
- Determine the targeting sequences of purine biosynthesis enzymes which result in dual targeting to plastids and mitochondria
| Group (lab) Members and areas of research
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- Craig Atkins- Plant physiology/ biochemistry
- Penelope Smith- Plant molecular biology
- Anthea Mann- Plant molecular biology
- Margo Ferguson- Plant molecular biology
- Natalie Fletcher- Legume transformation and microscopy
- Simone Chapple- Legume transformation and analysis of transgenic plants
Current
- GRDC (Smith and Barker in collaboration with staff from CSIRO Plant Industry and Murdoch University )- The Transgenic Pulse Development Project
- ARC-Discovery (Atkins, Smith and Whelan)- Genomic approaches to investigate metabolic co-ordination in plant cells.
- GRDC- (Atkins, Smith and Ferguson)- Characterization and manipulation of genes important for yield and quality in lupins.
Applications submitted or planned
- Characterisation of allergens of lupin seeds
| Techniques in the Laboratory
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Currently active
- In vivo targeting assays using particle bombardment
- Gene cloning and analysis
- Expression of recombinant proteins in E.coli
- Transformation of Lupin, Pea, Chickpea, Lentil, Faba Bean, Arabidopsis, Tobacco
- Construction of binary vectors for plant transformation
- Protein isolation, purification and characterization
In development
- analysis of siRNA and miRNA from phloem
Top three areas of knowledge
- Nitrogen assimilation in legumes
- Dual targeting of proteins to plastids and mitochondria
- Regulation of source-sink relationships for nitrogen in grain legumes
Top three technical skills
- genetic manipulation of legumes
- gene cloning and manipulation
- in vivo targeting assays
| Publications - Last 5 Years
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Goggin DE, Lipscombe R, Fedorova E, Millar H, Mann AJ, Atkins CA and Smith PMC (2003) Dual localization and targeting of aminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase in cowpea. Plant Physiology 131: 1033-1041.
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Atkins CA and Smith PMC (2003) Transformation of Lupins. In: Biotechnology for the Improvement of Legumes. Eds, P K Jaiwal & R P Singh (in press).
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Smith PMC , Winter H, Storer PJ, Bussell JD, Schuller KA and Atkins CA (2002) Effect of Short-Term N 2 Deficiency on Expression of the Ureide Pathway in Cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata L.) Root Nodules. Plant Physiology 129:1216-1221.
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Smith PMC and Atkins CA (2002) Purine Biosynthesis: Big in Cell Division- Even Bigger in Nitrogen Assimilation. Plant Physiology 128: 793-802.
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Yang H, Shankar M, Buirchell BJ, Sweetingham MW and Smith PMC (2002) Development of molecular markers tagging disease resistance to Diaporthe toxica in narrow-leafed lupin ( Lupinus angustifolius ) Theoretical and Applied Genetics 105: 265-270.
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Francki MG, Whitaker P, Smith PM and Atkins CA (2002) Differential expression of a novel gene during seed triacylglycerol accumulation in lupin species ( Lupinus angustifolius L. and L. mutabilis L.) Functional and Integrative Genomics 2: 292-300.
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Atkins , C.A. and Smith, P.M.C . (2002) Regulation of pod set and seed development in lupin. In: Wild and Cultivated Lupins from the Tropics to the Poles. Ed E. van Santen. Proceedings of the 10th International Lupin Conference, Laugarvatn , Iceland , 19-24 June 2002 . International Lupin Association, Canterbury , New Zealand . ISBN 0-86476-123-6. p23-26..
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Udvardi M, Altmann T, Essingmann B, Colebatch G, Klosker S, Smith PMC and Trevaskis B (2002) Lotus japonicus functional genomics: cDNA microarray analysis uncovers novel nodulins. In :Nitrogen Fixation Global Perspectives. Eds T Finan, M O'Brian, D Layzell, K Vessey, W Newton . p109-112.
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Atkins CA , Smith PMC , Mann AJ and Thumfort P (2001) Localization of carbonic anhydrase in legume nodules. Plant, Cell and Environment 24: 317-326
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Yang H, Sweetingham MW, Cowling WA and Smith PMC (2001) DNA fingerprinting based on microsatellite-anchored fragment length polymorphisms, and isolation of sequence-specific PCR markers in lupin ( Lupinus angustifolius L.). Molecular Breeding 7 : 203-209.
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Atkins CA and Smith PMC (2000) Ureide synthesis in legume nodules. In: Nitrogen Fixation in Bacteria : Molecular and Cellular Biology. Ed Triplett, EW. Horizon Scientific Press. Madison , Wisconsin . pp 559-587.
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